Augean stables
1
9.9
- noun
- /ɔˈdʒiən ˈsteɪbəlz/
- Literature
- He understood now the myth of the Augean stables.
- cleaning the Augean stables
Examples
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The Augean stables are still to be cleaned, and more than one Ulysses is revolving around Europe to find a better shelter.
Blog text (11) -
A word bubble draws our attention to the magnitude of Obasanjo's task: "Now, it's time to clear the Augean Stable!" 11
Academic text (2009) -
(It was put to earlier, rough use, remember, for cleaning the Augean stables.)
Academic text (1998) -
You killed the giant Geryon with a single blow, cleaned the Augean stables in one night.
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He'd have liked any number of tasks: cleaning out the Augean stables, for instance, or searching for the city of gold.
Fiction book (1991) -
But now, in the US, after eight years of political and economic devastation, President-Elect Barack Obama had an Augean Stable of his own to sweep.
Academic text (2009) -
Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which, by God's help and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.
Blog text (8) -
One might suppose they would demand a fundamental overhaul, a thorough hosing-out of this Augean stable of feckless programs and greedy interest groups.
Academic text (1998) -
Even if I could take my time in front of each one, which I couldn't, the enormity of the task would have made cleaning the Augean stables seem like picking up after a miniature poodle.
Fiction book (1991) -
Cleaning the Augean stables would require an immense effort to remove all the dirt and disorder.
Antonyms
How Dirty
- Literature
1
9.9
8
7.1
446
1.0
204
1.0
- Specialized
7
6.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase alludes to the myth of Hercules and King Augeas, so its force (a place requiring an extraordinary cleanup; extreme filth or corruption) relies on cultural/literary knowledge rather than ordinary compositional rules. Even if a learner knows the words 'Augean' and 'stable', the idiomatic, evaluative sense and the implication of exceptional effort are not fully predictable from the parts, making it only partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrase Augean stables comes from an old Greek story where Hercules cleaned the very dirty stables of King Augeas by sending two rivers through them. So today Augean stables means 'a place very dirty or full of corruption' that needs a huge effort to clean up.